Saturday, October 31, 2009

"The bank employees and officers' salary revision are due from November 1, 2007 ...the present offer of IBA for 17.5 per cent increase in salary is far below the expectations. We want at least 25 per cent," AIBOC General Secretary G D Nadaf told at a press meet on the sidelines of the tenth National Council Conference of United Bank Officers' Association.

He further said branches are suffering from acute shortage of officers and so the existing ones have to work overtime and even on holidays.

"We have demanded regulated working hours for officers and recruitment of adequate number of officers to take care of the need of the branches by filling the existing vacancies in the banks," Nadaf said.

The union is also opposed to merger and acquisions of public sector banks and instead pitched for nationalisation of private lenders.

"We have also suggested to the Finance Minister to nationalise private sector banks for better financial inclusion and also to cater to the needs of common man," Nadaf said.

He addes taht despite high growth, the wage revision is pending for the last two years and asked the management to take necessary action at the earliest.

Gujarat government on Friday agreed to grant college and university teachers, the pay scales determined by University Grants Commission (UGC), provided the teachers withdraw their agitation.

At least 15,000 teachers from all over the state were protesting against the state government's directive to revise pay scales of university and college teachers as per the Sixth Pay Commission. And, this was done without taking into consideration the recommendations of the Chaddha Committee appointed by UGC, which would increase their current salaries by 30 to 50 per cent.

The teachers have put their agitation on hold till November 5. This compromise was done after a high profile meeting of state education department officials and a delegation of the Gujarat State Federation of University and College Teachers Association (GFUCTA), and all other teachers' association of the universities, was done. The federation met state education minister Ramanlal Vora, minister of state for Home Amit Shah and commissioner for higher education Jayanti Ravi and other members of the secretariat.

"The state government has said that they have agreed to our demands and the sentiments of the teachers' community. This will be a great encouragement for teachers and a recovery from the set back that they had faced after the revision of the pay scale," said KS Shastri president of GFUCTA.

University education forum convenor Shashiranjan Yadav said, "We are glad that the government has heard our plea and understood why we were demanding the scale of UGC."

With the revision according to UGC pay scale, the middle order teachers who have put 14 to 16 years of service will see a salary increase by 50 per cent while junior level teachers also get a benefit of around 30 per cent over their present salary structure. Source Times of India.

MP to endorse 3-member panel report on teachers' pay hike

Madhya Pradesh Government in its reply told the High Court here today that it will endorse its three-member committee's report after scrutinising it on the issue of extending benefits of the Sixth Pay Commission's recommendations to the teachers in government colleges and universities.

After the State's submission, a division bench of MP High Court, comprising Justice Dipak Misra and Justice RK Gupta, asked University Grant Commission (UGC) and others to file their replies in this regard.

Last month, the MP High Court has termed the indefinite strike of the teachers which commenced on Teacher's Day (September 5) as illegal. The court, then, asked them to report to the duty after a student in his petition said that the studies had been badly affected, following the stir over implementation of sixth pay panel.

Following this, the MP Government Teachers Association and others intervened in the case and asked the court to decide the issue of Sixth Pay Commission's recomendations implementation in the higher education.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

The State Government has decided to release the entire balance arrear salary of the employees who have retired or would retire between January 1, 2006 and March 31, 2010 during the current financial year. Sources maintained that provision in this regard will be made in the supplementary budget. After revision of salary as per the Sixth Pay Commission, 40 per cent of the arrear salary was released on December 26, 2008.In the meantime, 50 per cent of the balance 60 per cent arrears have been released on September 7. The State Government has now decided to release the entire arrear salary for the retiring employees.

Source : Express Buzz.

Maharashtra Teachers' Pay

After a month-long strike, which ended in August, the teachers of Mumbai University and its affiliated colleges are yet to get salaries as per the sixth pay commission recommendations.

Reason: there has been no orientation course by the varsity on how the colleges should go about the process of implementing the new pay scale.

"Unlike other universities in the state, Mumbai University is yet to form committees, or conduct orientation camps, on pay fixation," said Madhu Paranjape, a senate member. MU vice-chancellor Chandra Krishnamurthy assured the senate on Monday that orientation camps would be held in eight zones on November 7 and 8. All affiliated colleges were told to submit proposals on the new pay scale by November 5.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

The Gujarat State University and College Teachers Federation (GSUCTF) has decided to present Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other state ministers with blood-sprinkled bouquets at every public function following the government’s move to turn down the pay scale recommendations suggested by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

Modi will attend a programme at the Veer Narmad South Gujarat University (VNSGU) on October 31 and the teachers there have decided to present him with a blood sprinkled bouquet to register their protest.

At the emergency meeting on Tuesday in Ahmedabad, an action plan was chalked out to intensify the ‘Satyagrah’ launched about two weeks ago with the support of the All India Federation of University and College Teachers Organisation (AIFUCTO), when it was on a visit to Ahmedabad to attend a national seminar on Higher Education in India-Issues and Challenges.

II Pandya, core committee member of GSFUCTA and president of Baroda University Teachers’ Association, said: “The Chief Minster will be attending a function at VNSGU at the end of this month. The teachers there will be giving him flowers dipped in blood as he has turned completely indifferent to this grave issue.”

The teachers took to the protest after the state government decided to implement the pay scale on the basis of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission. This is for the first time that the state government has turned down the pay scale structure decided by the UGC. The pay scale of university and college teachers is decided by the UGC and will result in disparities if it is implemented as per the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations.

As per the UGC guidelines, a lecturer at the entry level is paid Rs 23,000, while professors get a salary of Rs 43,000. Teaches get a salary of Rs 14,700.

Pandya added: “We want the state government to withdraw the government resolution passed on October 6, as the pay structure is not implemented in accordance with the UGC recommendations. UGC is a competent body to decide on the pay scale and university issues. There is no need to create another committee to supervise UGC. The state government is taking the decision without any foresight.”

GSUCTF president Prof K S Shastri said: “We have been getting some feelers that the government is ready to reconsider our cause, but we do not want negotiation. The Sixth Pay Commission is for other govt. employees and the UGC guidelines are meant for teachers. We want our pay structure as per the UGC guidelines. We are planning to go on a strike if nothing works out.”

Over 40 teachers from nine universities attended the meeting. The members intend to undertake similar protests and demonstrations at Rajkot, Vadodara and Ahmedabad in congregations attended by government officials.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Junior doctors in Jammu and Kashmir agitating for the last 23 days in support of their demands, including pay revision, today called off their strike and agreed to resume duties from tomorrow after getting an assurance from the state government that it will resolve the issues raised by them by November 16.

The high level committee headed by State Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather held a meeting with the striking doctors here and agreed to resolve their problems by November 16, an official statement quoting the minister said here this evening.

Their issues were given due consideration during the several rounds of talks held with different organisations of doctors in both Srinagar and Jammu and it was mutually agreed that the strike be called off, Rather was quoted as saying.

Monday, October 26, 2009

On behalf of AIFPTO, General Secretary Shri N Chandra Shekhar,has led a delegation of Polytechnic teachers on Dt. 23-10-2009 and met Smt. Purandeswari, MOS HRD at her camp office in Visakhapatnam. AIFPTO Thanked her for

taking initiative for submitting a note to Sri Kapil Sibal, HRM to consider review of MHRD recommendations for inclusion of PB4 for Polytechnic teachers. She assured us that a meeting with AIFPTO office bearers in the presence of Sri Kapil Sibal would be arranged after Nov. 1st to resolve the issue.

Shri N Chandra Shekhar advised polytechnic community to wait for better days to come and requested to give wide publicity of this news item among all polytechnic teaching community and local press.

The Polytechnic faculty, like their UGC and EnggCollege counterparts is allowed to move from PB3 to PB4 (after 3 years of service as Lecturer (Selection Grade)/ Head of the Department).

Sunday, October 25, 2009

The All India IIT Faculty Federation (AIIITFF) President M Thenmozhi today urged faculty members of all the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to accept and implement the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.

“We have requested the faculty to accept the pay package in the interest of the entire IIT system,” Thenmozhi told reporters here after the faculty meeting at IIT Delhi today. The meeting was held to take stock of the situation after the HRD ministry met the IIT Council on October 19. The board of governors of most IITs will meet in a month’s time and the IIT faculty will meet thereafter.

Thenmozhi, however, said that the issue relating to the 40 per cent cap on promotion of professors to senior grades and the provision of contractual appointment at entry level continue to remain matters of concern.

Last month, HRD minister Kapil Sibal had assured the faculty that the government guidelines on the pay structure could be relaxed for promoting excellence. Faculty associations were unhappy about an HRD clause which said there would be a 40 per cent cap on professors who are eligible to receive higher pay after six years in the post.

The meeting between Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and representative of 5.5 lakh employees and officers held today failed to produce any result. The employees and officers are proposed to go on strike on October 31. The only bright thing during the meeting was that Chouhan directed GAD Minister KL Agrawal to sort out problems of the employees.The meeting was held at the residence of the chief minister on Saturday. Their main demands were arrears of 6th Pay Commission recommendations, and one installment of DA instead of two. Instead of taking any decision the chief minister stalled it by asking the GAD Minister to go through the employees demands. Now Agrawal would meet the employee representatives on October 26. Initially the chief minister disapproved of the employees going on strike saying that the government had taken lots of decisions for welfare of employees. In spite of this comment the employees decided to go on the proposed strike on October 31 and stage statewide demonstrations on that day.Chouhan told them that officers and employees are inseparable part of the government. The state government would continue the dialogue with the employees. The government is looking into alternatives to take decisions in favour of the employees so that development works are not affected. He said that alternatives for payment of arrears of 6th Pay Commission is under consideration of the government. He said that advisory committee meeting would be held in every three months. He appealed cooperation of the employees and instill a sense of 'Our Madhya Pradesh' in them. He said that it has been decided to celebrate foundation day of the state on November 1. The representatives assured full cooperation to the chief minister. The delegation of employees and officers unions comprised of LN Kailasia, Ulfat Singh Yadav, GL Rathore, LN Sharma, MP Dwivedi, RK Dwivedi, RP Upadhyaya, Devi Sharan Sharma, Ramnarayan Acharya, Chandrashekhar Namdhora, Dr RN Singh, Dr Asif, Brikodar Singh, Ramesh Chandra Sharma, Ravindra Shukla, Chandrashekhar Vyas, Rajkumar Chandel, RK Tiwari and Shivpal Singh.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

The chief minister told the state assembly that the government would implement the Sixth Pay Commission for its 90,000 employees.

Lal Thanhawla said that the cabinet's decision is being awaited and the government is keen to implement the 6th Pay Commission recommendation as soon as possible, a senior finance department official told newsmen.

Lal Thanhawla, who also holds the finance portfolio, told the house that while the government was ready to implement the recommendations for its regular employees, the welfare of the casual and contingent workers of the government was not overlooked and it was recommended that their wages be increased.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

There is always a slip between the cup and lip, as they say. And for nearly 8 lakh officers and employees waiting for their wage hike , the gap may not be bridged in a hurry. This is even as the Indian Banks Association (IBA) and United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) have agreed upon a 17.5% wage hike.

But, there seems a devil hiding in the details of the proposed option to join the pension scheme for those who are out of the pension net currently. Issues like accounting for the cost of pension and its cost-sharing arrangement between bank management and employees have cropped up which is delaying the entire negotiation process. The wage revision is due from November 2007.

For starters, IBA and UFBU have now agreed upon a 17.5% wage hike over the establishment expenses of banks as on March 31, 2007. IBA, the body for the bank management, has also in principle agreed to offer the pension option to those who did not opt for it in 1993. Around 2.66 lakh public sector bank employees do not get monthly pension.

Even after agreeing on the second pension, IBA has put fresh conditions. It now wants employees to share a burden for building up the pension corpus. Then, the proposed introduction of New Pension Scheme (NPS) and variable pay are still need to be resolved, said All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) president Rajen Nagar. AIBEA is the largest bank union.

Top bankers who are part of the wage negotiation did not want to officially comment at this juncture. Yet, they have confirmed that IBA has agreed in principle to offer the second option for pension.

For the second pension option, banks (barring SBI) will have to shell out an additional Rs 6,000 crore collectively. IBA is also likely to consider pension option for bankers who retired before March 31, 2008 and are out of the purview of pension scheme.

Although, both the parties have in principle agreed to the core issues, some details are yet to be worked out, said State Bank of India’s employee’s association s general secretary for Bengal circle, Shyamal Karmakar. However, this pension issue does not really bother SBI employees who are always entitled to pensions.

However, UFBU -- the umbrella organisation for nine leading bank unions -- is not also comfortable with the IBA s proposal to introduce NPS for bankers joining after April 2010. We want the old pension scheme to continue till October 31, 2012. We have committed that unions will discuss the issue of NPS after this. Mr Nagar said. Incidentally, the ninth bipartite settlement will be valid till October 31, 2012.

We are also against the concept of variable pay. It deteriorates performance rather than improving it, Mr Nagar opined.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Government system for public healthcare remained paralysed on the consecutive 18th day today as junior doctor continued to stay away from work demanding immediate redressal of their ''long pending'' demands.

Work remained badly affected in the Government Medical College and associated hospitals here as the doctors held protest demonstrations in Jammu as well as Kathua districts, reports said.

Senior consultants were somehow managing the emergency services in the hospitals.

On the call of the Doctors Joint Action Committee (DJAC), Junior doctors across the state are on an indefinite strike since October 4 to press government for revision in their pay package.

Source : UNI

J&K ready to release pending salaries of SRTC

Jammu and Kashmir Government today said it was ready to release the pending salaries of State Road Transport Corporation, provided they come forward with "positive attitude" and urged them to call off their strike.

"Government is serious about the difficulties and problems of SRTC employees, but they should come forward with positive attitude," Transport Secretary K B Jandial told Public undertaking committee of legislative assembly here.

He said that government has already assured the employees of the corporation that five months salary will be released and expressed hope that the employees will call off their strike immediately.

SRTC employees are on an indefinite strike over past nearly two months and have recently submitted their resignations en masse under voluntary retirement scheme as a protest demanding one-time settlement of their dues.

World's largest para-military organisation, Border Security Force (BSF) suffers from highest attrition for quite a while.Experts cite reason like low promotional vaenue along with pay disparity in relation to their armed forces counterparts after the implementation of the Sixth pay commission report for the high attrition rate in the BSF. Every month at least 350-400 BSF jawans and officers seek premature retirement of which Rajasthan Frontier has not been far behind.

A BSF source said the Centre does not realise the challenges our jawans and officers face every day while protecting the 7,000 km long border adjoining Pakistan and Bangladesh. "During 30-35 years of career, a BSF person could manage to stay not more than a few days with his family and the promotional avenues in comparison to the army personnel, it has been frustrating for them," said a source.

According to an available data more than 900 jawans and officers from the Rajasthan Frontier alone left the job during October 1, 2008 to September 30 ,2009. The data released by BSF headquarters at New Delhi reads that in 2008 alone at least 4,400 people left the job while till June 2009, it has crossed 2,600 at the all-India level from the organisation. As the data reveals most of the personnel leave the job after completing 20 years in service just to take post retirement benefits while almost 40% of them leave the organisation well before 20 years of service on account of low wages, promotional avenues and tough living conditions and service conditions.

A retired director general BSF, M L Kumavat, accepted the fact of high attrition rate in the BSF but said "The trend has been arrested after the implementation of the pay commission report." Kumavat believes that not only the service conditions and pay disparity have not been the reasons for high attrition. "People leave the job as they get lucrative offers from the private sectors and also family pressures and responsibility plays its role," added Kumavat.

Kumavat accepted the fact that a constable in the BSF takes at least 20 years to be promoted to head constable while a similar rank in the Army needs 7-8 years to reach that level. Similarly, a second command officer in the BSF have not been included in the pay band 4 (P4) while his counterparts Lt colonel has been included.

Agrees P S Nayar, general secretary, All India Central Para Military Forces and Services Welfare Association, who said "The difference between the salary of a jawan in BSF and Army is of at least Rs 5,000 a month meanwhile the difference goes up to Rs 22,000 in case of higher ranks. This disparity does more harm than good so far moral of BSF is concerned."

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Here is a happy news for the teachers of Universities in Karnataka who are in the University Grants Commission (UGC) grade.

The State Government has raised their retirement age from the existing 60 to 62 years.

This is in compliance with the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission for University teachers.

Aravind Limbavali, Minister for Higher Education, told a media person yesterday that the provision would be implemented with immediate effect following an order from the Government ED37UNE-2009 C Bangalore, dated 14-10-2009 and would benefit over 1,000 University teaches in the State.

The Universities are facing a shortage of experienced teachers especially in Science and Mathematics subjects. The change would help to retain the existing qualified teachers and also attract best talents into the profession, he said.

The pay scale of University teachers has also been increased with the Cabinet giving a nod but a Government order could not be issued due to the pre-occupation of the Ministers including the Chief Minister with the flood relief work in North Karnataka.

The order would be issued soon with retrospective effect from Jan. 1, 2006 as per the recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission.

The rise would benefit about 11,000 University teachers with the Centre bearing Rs. 800 crore of the burden and Rs. 111 crore by the State Government.

The arrangement sharing the burden would be valid only for a year and later the State Government has to bear it entirely.

Friday, October 16, 2009

In a Diwali bonanza to its employees, the Uttarakhand government has decided to increase their Dearness Allowance up to 10 per cent, official sources said today.

The employees whose pay scale has been revised on January 1, 2006, would now get 27 per cent DA in place of existing 22 per cent from this month, they said. However, the employees, whose pay scales have not been revised since January, 2006 would now get 64 per cent DA in place of the existing 54 per cent, they said.

A government order in this regard has been issued, they said.

The pensioners would also be benefited by the new decision of the government. They would now get five per cent increased DA from this month at 27 per cent DA.

Assam will implement pay commission report in current year.The Assam government will implement the recommendations of the sixth state pay commission report, which revised the pay-scale of its employees within the current year.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Good news in the eve of diwali for Assam state Govt. employees. As promised by the Chief Minister earlier, The report of the Sixth Assam Pay Commission was today officially handed over to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.

The report of the Commission, set up in May 30, 2008, was handed over by its chairman Bhaskar Baruah to Gogoi.

‘I really don’t know the contents and the recommendations of the report, but I strongly feel the commission might have considered central pay scale for our employees,’ the chief minister told journalists.

According to government sources, the commission had recommended central pay scale to the state employees with retrospective effect from April 1, 2009.

‘We are happy that the Pay Commission report was submitted in about 16 months. We are hopeful and optimistic that the recommendations would fulfil the aspirations of the state employees,’ Basab Kalita, secretary of the All Assam Employees Union, told.

The state employees were demanding central pay scale and had in the past resorted to agitations.

‘We had already announced that our government would give central pay scale to our employees and very soon we are going to implement the Pay Commission’s recommendations,’ the chief minister said.

Punjab government has been working on the modalities to release the arrears to its employees after implementing the pay commission report.

Punjab finance Minster Manpreet Singh Badal on Wednesday night hinted that arrears will be given to state employees in next fiscal year.

He was interacting with media after presiding over the golden jubilee celebrations of Our Lady of Fatima. He said that even though we have implementing the pay commission report from August 1, this year. To give arrears of 43 months of pay difference we have waiting report of our expert committee which was formed after the pay commission report, he added. The 5th pay commission has recommended the 27 % pay hike of Punjab employees from January 1, 2006.

PSEB has accepted the recommendations of wage formulation committee and has given a Diwali gift of revised pay scales to its employees.

The PSEB has maintained the pay differential of its employees vis-à-vis state government employees and has given higher initial to all categories of employees in all the five pay bands. The only deviation from the recommendations of wage formulation committee is rate of increment has been kept as 3 percent instead of 3.5 percent.

The group 1 and 2 employees in pre revised scales has been placed in PB-1 band with scale of 5100-10680, group 3 to 9 have been given 6400-20200 scale under PB-2, group10 to 17 employees has been placed in PB-3 with scale of 10900-34800.The employees under group 18 to 23 has been placed under PB-4 with scale of 16650-39100.various senior officers under group 23 and 24 has been placed in PB-5 with scale of 41300-67000.

The grade pay to all its employees have also been given as per their ranks.The grade for SDO, Accounts officer and equivalent categories have been given grade pay of 8500, Executive engineer Dy. CAO has been given grade pay of Rs.8500.Superintending engineer and equivalent has been grade pay of Rs. 9600 and Chief engineers or equivalent has been given grade pay of Rs.10500.

Engineer-in chief or equivalent have been given scale of 67000-79000 without grade pay.Regarding pension benefits and house rent allowance to its employees PSEB has decided to follow Punjab government. The payment of arrears to the employees will be on the pattern of state government.

PSEB employees have been agitating for the last two months over delay in accepting the recommendations of wage formulation committee constituted by the board. The acceptance of report has come as a major relief to the employees unions. SEB Engineers Association had met Chief Minister Punjab on this issue. They later met finance secretary as directed by the Chief Minister and explained their case.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Letters signed with blood will soon flood chief minister Narendra Modi's office. This is the next phase of college teachers' agitationagainst the state government's decision to implement its own pay scale instead of the one recommended by University Grants Commission (UGC).

"On Tuesday, teachers from colleges and universities across the state will gather at their respective institutes to write letters and sign those in blood," said KS Shastri, president of Gujarat teachers' federation.

"The letters which will be addressed to the chief minister will in one paragraph drive home the point - implement the pay scale of UGC with immediate effect," said Shastri.

The next phase of the agitation will be burning of the government resolution (GR). The GR was issued recently by the state government to block UGC's pay scale and introduce state government's pay structure that is significantly lesser than the one recommended.

On Monday the three-day seminar of All India Federation of University and College Teachers' Organisation (AIFUCTO) concluded. The participants college teachers from across the country decided that the agitation in Gujarat will spread to other parts of the country.

"College teachers across the country will take up cudgels on behalf of the teachers in Gujarat. In other states too, ill-treatment being meted out to professors, readers and lecturers of colleges and universities in Gujarat will be protested," said members of AIFUCTO.

The theme of the seminar was focused on higher education in India and the challenges it faces. Participants presented 50 research papers on this topic.

Source : Times of India.Jammu and Kashmir Pay Update.

Jammu and Kashmir government has constituted a committee to go into the pay anomalies resulting from the implementation of the 6th Pay Commission report. The committee with the Finance secretary as its convener will have the secretaries of General Administration Department, the Law Department and the ARI/ Trainings Department, and representatives of the chief minister’s secretariat not below the rank of special secretary as members and the director Codes (Finance Department) as its member/secretary.The terms of reference of the committee would be to examine various anomalies in the existing pay structure as may come to its notice and suggest measures to remove these; to examine the issues of “legitimate” pay anomalies resulting from implementation of the sixth Pay Revision and to examine any connected or incidental matter. The committee would be serviced by the Finance Department, an official handout issued today said.

Source : Greater Kashmir

Dearness Allowance for PSU [14.10.09]

Employees of select central public sector enterprise will get more D.A with effect from 1st July 2009. It will go up by 5 percentage points in enterprises that follow the central dearness allowance pattern.

Monday, October 12, 2009

fter more than a month-long protest and token fasting for a day to protest the (modified) Sixth Pay Commission package, the faculty members of premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) appear to have resigned to implement the new pay structure with a few tweaks.

“We have accepted the pay package for now,” confirmed a professor from IIT Bombay who did not wish to be named. The IIT-Delhi faculty forum decided to accept the pay last week after an assurance from the ministry of human resources that the pay structure norms could be relaxed.

Other IITs, too, are in the process of accepting the pay structure. B Sastry, president of IIT Kharagpur Faculty Association, said, “The debate is still on. One view is that IITs will postpone the implementation of the revised pay scale till the IIT Council meeting. Another view is that IITs should accept it now. We are waiting for the AIIITFF to communicate their opinion on this.”

M Thenmozhi, professor at IIT Madras and president of All India IIT Faculty Federation (AIIITFF) told Business Standard, “We are waiting for the IIT Council meeting on October 19 when we would discuss some of the pending issues. After that we would implement the revised pay scheme, with a few changes that would be cleared by the Council. Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal has asked the Council to reconsider some of the IIT faculty issues like doing away with 40 per cent cap on promotions of assistant professors, 10 per cent cap on contractual assistant professorship, and Rs 500 increase in annual gross pay (AGP) of associate professors and professors.”

However, the issue of flexible cadre — which allows deserving candidates to move up the ranks, remains unresolved. The faculty was protesting about the 40 per cent cap on promotion of professors to senior grade and provision of contractual appointment at entry level.

“The 40 per cent cap on promotion of professors to senior grade is a major one. We are also concerned that with the number of students set to increase by 54 per cent in the next three years owing to the OBC and general intake, we will find it difficult to hire required faculty members,” said a faculty member.

Unlike the larger and older IITs, where the mandated faculty strength is 500-600, the newer ones have been sanctioned a strength of 60 faculty members. Yet, according to, the MHRD’s efforts to “micro-manage total number of faculty members in each cadre” will affect the productivity of IITs.

The IITs had also put before the ministry a demand for scholastic pay of Rs 15,000 per month, similar to that at DRDO, which was not addressed fully by the government.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Expressing a sense of solidarity with agitating members of Gujarat State Teachers' Association, AIFUCTO has decided to organize the demonstration at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi near Income Tax Circle at 4 pm. About 650 representatives of the organization, who have come to attend the 25th three-day national seminar on Higher Education in India Issues & Challenges', will participate in the event.

"In response to the call of Gujarat State Teachers' Association, thousands of lecturers from various colleges across state are arriving in the city to join the fight against this injustice," said K S Shastri, president of the association.

The subject of non-implementation of UGC's recommendation by the government dominated the course of discussion on the first day of AIFUCTO national seminar. "Members of AIFUCTO from other states expressed angst against the apathetic attitude of Gujarat government in solving the problems of college lecturers," said AIFUCTO president Thomas Joseph.

"It is hard to believe that such an injustice is being meted out to teachers in a state which boasts of being the leader of economical development in the country," Joseph said.

"Central government and UGC have always designed their policies, keeping in mind honour and respect for the teachers," said Bharatsinh Solanki, Union minister of state for power, who inaugurated the seminar.

Facts.* The basic pay plus grade pay of a lecturer at entry level as per UGC should be Rs 23,000 but the state government is offering Rs 14, 700.

* Designation given by UGC of assistant professor and associate professor has not been granted. GoG has violated UGC's guidelines by not incorporating these changes.

* Reader's basic scale of Rs 37,400 has been abolished and instead given to professors who should get Rs 43,000 as per UGC's guidelines.

* The GR also mentions that all teachers will be equivalent to government employees and there exists ambiguity regarding retirement age.

* Autonomy of all universities has also been taken away. Source : Times of India.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Keen to avoid a repeat of the pay dispute with the IITs, human resource development minister Kapil Sibal is preparing peace packages for India’s top technical institutions that may be unveiled over the next two weeks.

Sibal is independently meeting directors of the IITs, IIMs, the National Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research in an unprecedented blitzkrieg to diffuse any lingering tensions, The Telegraph has learnt.

The HRD minister will formally offer the institutes greater autonomy — both in financial and managerial terms — and will insist on mechanisms to address faculty grievances, top government sources said.

The minister has already indicated that he is keen on greater autonomy for the IITs and the IIMs, and has asked his ministry to formulate a grievance redressal mechanism for IIT teachers.

But ministry sources said Sibal has now decided to extend his autonomy embrace to cover the NITs and the IISERs as well. All these institutes will also be offered faculty grievance redressal mechanisms.

Sibal is scheduled to meet directors of the seven IIMs on October 16, and will chair a meeting of the IIT council — the highest decision making body of the IITs — on October 19.

He is also scheduled to chair the NIT council — the highest executive body of the NITs — and the directors of the IISERs within the next two weeks. Sibal is currently in Paris attending a Unesco meeting and is scheduled to return to India on October 13.

At his meetings with the directors of the IITs, IIMs, NITs and the IISERs, Sibal is expected to declare that he wants to ease the HRD ministry’s control over tie ups these institutions engage in with others.

Sibal, it is learnt, is also keen to ease the norms that at present limit the ability of these institutions to share each other’s faculty.

The planned set of meetings follows a protracted tussle between the HRD ministry and the IIT faculty over teacher salaries. The dispute saw the HRD ministry face charges of neglecting concerns of teachers and of infringing on the autonomy of the IITs — charges that the ministry denied.

The dispute was resolved — at least for the present — after a meeting between IIT faculty representatives and the HRD minister last weekend in Delhi.

Friday, October 9, 2009

The public sector bank employees can now expect a pay hike soon. Finance ministry officials have said that the talks between the Indian bankers' Association, the employee unions and the government are in the last stage of finalization. Government officials have indicated a huge tab of Rs 9000 crore for this fiscal alone.

Around eight lakh public sector bank employees are due for this pay revision.

After a discussion of around six months, the rate of salary hike is almost decided. The finance ministry officials said that nineteen state-run banks were expected to receive a hike of 17.5%.the pay hike will be effective till October 2012, which implies that annual hike of 17.5 percent will be repeated every year till 2012.

For the current year alone, the decided payout is a massive Rs 4800 crore. However SBI and its subsidiaries are not entitled to this pay hike since they are governed by a different act.

Apart from a raise in the salary, bankers are also demanding a pension option. This will further push up the tab. The government has indicated that the pension burden would have to be shared by both the banks and the employees and this would be done by adjusting a certain portion of pay hike for pension payouts. Banks would have to maintain provisions worth Rs. 6000 crore to meet the obligation of 2.5 lakh employees.

IBA is in favour of employees picking up 30 percent of the tab that amounts to Rs 1200 crore. The remaining 70 percent will be paid by bank managements.

Centre today came out with a package to help state governments implement the 6th Pay Commission pay structure for teachers in degree technical colleges. Under the package, the Centre will provide partial financial assistance to those states who want to implement the revised pay structure for teachers in degree technical colleges, including architecture, town planning, pharmacy and applied arts and crafts institutions.The state governments can implement the revised pay at par with the UGC scales of pay, a notification issued by the HRD Ministry in this regard said.The financial assistance will be given only to the state and state-aided institutions where 100 per cent maintenance is being met by the state governments.The union government will provide financial assistance up to 80 per cent of the additional expenditure to be incurred by the states for implementing the revised package for the period from January 2006 to March 2010.The states will have to bear the rest of the cost for this period. However, the states will have to bear the full cost for the revised pay structure from April 2010, the notification said.The Central assistance will be restricted to revision of pay only, it said.

Up for debate: teachers' evaluation at Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. If a proposal from the ministry of human resource and development is accepted by the elite B-school, the institute will have to put in place a system to measure the performance of professors to implement payhikes

Pay and performance have been linked in an MHRD draft sent to the institute that contains the new payscale stipulations after the Sixth Pay Commission. The document suggests that the grade pay the basic salary for each professor should be Rs 10,500 at the start of their careers. After six years in service, the pay should be increased to Rs 12,000. "But the ministry has suggested that the increased pay will be given to only 40% of the professors. Now, the question is how the institute will select this 40%. Hence, an evaluation will have to be done," said one of the institute officials.

Shekhar Chaudhuri, the director of IIM-C, said, "Though there is a proposal from the ministry, we still have not taken a decision to implement it. The idea of evaluating professors is still at a very nascent stage."

The MHRD has also suggested that apart from teaching, the institute should also give enough importance to research while evaluating professors. "Till now, we haven't taken a definite decision. There will be several parameters for evaluation if the ministry decision is finally implemented," added a senior faculty member.

The parameters that might be considered are: research by professors, papers published in journals, participation in both national and international seminars, innovative teaching methods in the classroom, administrative responsibilites shouldered by professors as well as seniority.

"If the board of governors decides to give a go-ahead to the ministry's proposal, we will have to develop a proper mechanism to implement the decision. At this moment, it is too early to speak any further on the matter," Chaudhuri said.

Anindya Sen, senior professor and former dean of the institute, sounded concerned. "The faculty fears that if the recommendations are implemented, they might create certain discrepancies and lead to dissatisfaction among the professors. The main worry is the fairness of the entire evaluation process. Till a transparent and acceptable evaluation procedure is put in place, some anxiety will always remain."

The opinion of students will also find a place in the evaluation process, as they are an integral part of the system. Till now, there is no such system of evaluation of IIM professors.

The IIMs across the country are already at loggerheads with MHRD over several recommendations, which they feel are unfair. The most hotly debated issues are: if assistant professors should be placed in pay band 4 and whether there should be a 40% cap on professors who can get Rs 12,000 as grade pay after six years. Source : Times of India.

The Gujarat State Federation of University and College Teacher Association has demanded to reject the state government’s Sixth Pay Commission Government Resolution (GR) on Thursday. More than 50 office bearers of nine universities across the state have decided to conduct two campaigns on October 13 and October 14 to show their discontent towards the GR.

Speaking to Newsline, GFUCTA secretary Prof K S Shastri said: “On October 13, all the universities will organise bonfire of GR and later we will be conducting signature campaign, where the signatures will be done by blood of university teaching staff. We demand immediate withdrawl of GR with lock stock and barrel.”

He added, “This campaign will be carried out across nine universities of Gujarat and it will be called Raktakshar.”

Furthermore, every head of the department has been asked to write about their grievances about the Sixth Pay Commission and its recommendations.

Continuing their protest against the state government’s decision on Sixth Pay Commission given to university teachers, Baroda University Teachers Association (BUTA) submitted a representation to Governor S C Jamir.

With only two days left for Diwali vacation, BUTA had demanded immediate lifting of GR. One of the BUTA official said, “Sixth Pay Commission is not implemented in accordance with the recommendations made by UGC-appointed Chhadha Commission.” BUTA President Prof I I Pandya said: “UGC has clearly specified if Chhadha Commission is not accepted, it might lead to annulling of funds given to the universities for several projects. The state government has failed to respect Chhadha Commission, which was formed in consensus with three main bodies, --- Parliament, UGC and Ministry of Human Resource and Development.”

shall have different stages of Academic Grade Pay which shall ensure that. teachers and

other equivalent cadres covered under this Scheme, subject to other conditions of

eligibility being satisfied, have multiple opportunities for upward movement during their

career.

(iv) Posts of Professors shall be created in under-graduate (UG) colleges as well as in

post-graduate (PG) colleges. The number of posts of Professors in a UG College shall be

equivalent to 10 percent of the number of posts of Associate Professors in that College.

There shall be as many posts of Professors in each PG College as the number of

Departments in that College. No new Departments shall be created in UG or PG Colleges

without prior approval of the UGC.

(v) Up to 10% of the posts of Professors in universities shall be in the higher

Academic Grade Pay of Rs. 12000 with eligibility conditions to be prescribed by the UGC.

(vi) National Eligibility Test (NET) shall be compulsory for appointment at the entry

level of Assistant Professor, subject to the exemptions to the degree of Ph.D. in respect

of those persons obtaining the award through a process of registration, course-work and

external evaluation, as have been/ or may be laid down by the UGC through its

regulations, and so adopted by the University. NET shall not be required for such

Masters' programmes in disciplines for which there is no NET........Contd.

8. Other terms and conditions:
(a) Increments:
(i) Each annual increment shall be equivalent to 3% of the sum total of pay in the
(ii) Each advance increment shall also be at the rate of 3% of the sum total of pay in
the relevant Pay Band and the AGP as applicable and shall be non-compoundable.
(iii) The number of additional increment(s) on placement at each higher stage of AGP
shall be as per the existing scheme of increment on promotion from lower Pay Scale to
higher Pay Scale; however, in view of the considerable raise in effective pay between the
two Pay Bands, there shall be no additional increment on movement from the Pay Band
of Rs. 15600-39100to the Pay Band of Rs. 37400-67000.
(iv) All issues relating to grant of advance increments to teachers engaged in
engineering/ technical courses in the university system shall be subject to
recommendations of the Committee separately constituted by the Central Government
for pay review of teachers in technical education.
(b) Pay 'fixation formula':
The pay 'fixation formula' recommended by 6th Central Pay Commission as
accepted by the Central Government shall be adopted for teachers and equivalent
positions in the Library and Physical Education Cadres.
(c) Allowances:
(i) Allowances such as Leave Travel Concession, Special Compensatory Allowances,
Children's Education Allowance, Transport Allowance, House Rent Allowance, Deputation
Allowance, Travelling Allowance, Dearness Allowance, area based Special Compensatory
Allowance etc, as applicable to teachers and Library and Physical Education Cadres, shall
be at par with those accepted by the Central Government for Central Government
employees on the recommendations of 6th central Pay Commission and shall be
applicable from 1.09.2008.
(ii) For teachers and equivalent positions in Library and Physical Education cadres in
UGC maintained universities/colleges and institutions deemed to be universities, the
rates of allowances as applicable to Central Government Group 'A' employees shall be
adopted.
(iii) Teachers and equivalent positions in Library and Physical Education cadres, in
UGC maintained universities/colleges and institutions deemed to be universities, with
visual, orthopedic hearing or other disabilities under the provisions of 'Persons with
Disabilities (Protection of Rights, Equal Opportunities and Full Participation) Act, 1995'
shall be entitled to twice the normal rate of transport allowance as accepted by the
Central Government on the recommendations of 6th CPC for Central Government
Employees with disabilities............Contd.

Punjab bureaucracy was able to settlement the clearance of revised pay scales for PSEB employees on Thursday on the plea that board should first take clearance of state government.

The Pay Revision of PSEB employees and officers has become the victim of the proxy war going on between concerned state authorities and the Board Management for the past sometime. The recommendations of the Wage Formulation Committee headed by Member/Distribution were put up before the Board for decision on September 18 but decision was deferred.

PSEB Engineers Association had met Chief Minister Punjab on October 2 and the proposal of the State bureaucracy to refer the issue to a committee of officers headed by Chief Secretary, Punjab was shelved after discussions and instead Chief Minister Punjab directed Principal Secretary/ Finance to sort out the issue within a week.

Subsequently Association held a meeting with Finance Secretary wherein all the recommendations of wage formulation committee were explained. Today’s Board meeting has been convened today to take the decision on the pay scales but again state bureaucracy sent a letter to Chairman and /Member Distribution asking them to attend the meeting convened by Chief Secretary, Punjab

Employees co-ordination committee said in a press note today evening that it is ironical that despite clear instructions of the Chief Minister, issues relating to pay scales of PSEB employees and officers are being unnecessarily delayed.Co-ordination committee leaders. H.S.Bedi, Pal Singh Moga, Karam Chand Bhardwaj, Sukhdev Singh, B.S.Sekhon, Bhupinder Singh, Paramjit Singh Bedi, Harbhajan Singh, B.S.Saini, Brij Lal, V.K.Goyal, Devinder Singh, Faljit Singh and Vijay Kumar has decided to bear black badges and hold protest rallies on October14. Further to convey deep sense of resentment prevailing amongst the Employees & Officers due to non revision of their Pay Scales, it has been decided not to celebrate Diwali this year, under protest.

With government's assurance that the pay structure norms could be relaxed by IITs, the IIT Delhi Faculty Forum has decided to accept the 6th Pay Commission package.

"We have been given a lot of assurance by the government. We expect that the assurances will be implemented. We are asking our faculty to accept the new package," Prof S S Murthy, president of IIT Delhi Faculty Forum, said.

The IIT Delhi Faculty Forum met for the last two days and passed a resolution yesterday for accepting the new package.

However, the All India IIT Faculty Federation president Prof M Thenmozhi said the faculty forum of a few other IITs are waiting for some more time till the clear picture emerges about how the IITs are going to implement the promises made by the government.

The IIT Faculty Federation had gone on a day-long fast on September 24 to protest certain "anomalies" in the pay structure. The faculty was protesting 40 per cent cap on promotion of professors to senior grade and provision of contractual appointment at entry level.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The salaries that have been declared by the government have left professors and other teaching staff disappointed. Professors, readers and lecturers claim that this is for the first time that the state government has not accepted the pay scale laid down by UGC and given a pay structure themselves. State education department on Tuesday declared the salary structure approved by the state government as per pay commission recommendation. The salaries that have been declared by the govt. have left professors and other teaching staff disappointed.

The revised salaries are for the staff of the state universities, government colleges, private colleges, grant-in-aid colleges. The group would also include the librarian and physical education teachers.

Lecturers and professors claim that non-compliance with the UGC scale will bring a difference of close to Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000. "The lecturer and professor community is very disappointed and taken aback by this decision. UGC was even ready to share up to 80 per cent of the burden of salaries. The state government has yet again proved how the teaching fraternity is the least cared for in the state," said a disappointed lecturer.

Another professor added, "If the state government does not bring any revision in this suggested pay structure, the university and college teaching staff may take some strong measures and even protest against it".

Source : Times of India.

Teachers planning to agitateDreaming of a hefty hike and making plans for Diwali, over 15,000 disappointed teaching staff in 1,000 colleges in the state are furious and planning to agitate. “This decision is not acceptable to us. Professors, readers and lecturers stand to lose anything between Rs 1.2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh annually, owing to non-implementation of the UGC’s version of the Sixth Pay Commission,” said KS Shastri, president of Gujarat State Teachers’ Federation (GSTF) and former vice-chancellor of Gujarat University.

The issue is likely to snowball into a state-wide agitation, throwing college academics out of gear. Members of GSTF will meet on Thursday to decide how to effectively and aggressively to put their point across.

Till date, the state government had implemented all the five pay commissions as per directions of a committee set up by the UGC. This is the first time that the state government has devised its own pay scale.

The GR effectively said that instead of UGC pay commission’s norms, Gujarat government’s norms would be implemented. Shastri added: “This is not acceptable to us. Till the GR is scrapped and UGC’s recommendations are implemented in letter and spirit our agitation shall continue.”

Secretary of the GSTF Devendra Solanki said: “The UGC’s grant covers 80 per cent of the expenditure incurred in paying college and university teachers. Only 20 per cent is state government’s responsibility. Gujarat government’s financial status is sound, then why this miserly approach?”

“Since July the state government has been assuring us of issuing a GR for implementation of the UGC scale. But, they have gone back on their word. This government has meted out step-motherly treatment to education. Ironically, the same government on the other hand makes a lot of noise about providing quality education to the state,” said president of Gujarat University Teachers’ Association RS Patel.

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